Call all-party meet on Kashmir: BJP to PM

BJP on Thursday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, restore peace and harmony in the region, and ensure that no steps are taken which demoralise security forces deployed there.

Senior BJP leader L K Advani, along with a delegation of party MLAs from Jammu and Kashmir and Central leaders, met the Prime Minister to discuss the matter and submitted a memorandum to him.

"During the meeting, Advani told the Prime Minister that we were looking forward to the statement of Home Minister P Chidambaram but he only apprised us of the situation in Kashmir and said nothing about the steps being taken by the government," Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said.

"Advani told Singh that the government is clueless about what to do in Kashmir and cannot think of a way to deal with the situation. Earlier, there used to be terrorist violence but now violent crowds throw stones at the security forces," Swaraj said.

The party demanded that the Prime Minister call an all-party meeting to discuss the situation and the steps to be taken to deal with it.

"The Prime Minister gave us a positive response. He said he had no issues in calling an all-party meeting to discuss the matter," Swaraj said.

BJP said Singh agreed with them that the first priority at this juncture was restoration of peace in the Valley.

"He also assured us that nothing would be done that would demoralise the security forces there," Swaraj said.

In the memorandum, BJP said 1,262 security personnel have been injured in mob violence so far.

"Any dilution in the presence of the security forces or their authority is wholly unacceptable to us. The all-party meeting wrongly decided (despite BJP's dissent) to have an inquiry against the security forces. We cannot allow any dilution of India’s security presence, particularly when Pakistan is fomenting trouble," the memorandum said.

Swaraj alleged the army was functioning with its "hands tied" due to government pressure and there are also talks of dilution of Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

Though BJP has been highly critical of the central government and the Omar Abdullah dispensation in J & K on the handling of the situation in Kashmir, it has stopped short of demanding Governor's rule in the state.

Swaraj, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, Deputy Leader of BJP in the Upper House S S Ahluwalia and 10 BJP MLAs from Jammu and Kashmir were part of the delegation.